Sol Lesser(1890-1980)
- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Director
Sol Lesser entered the film industry as an exhibitor and the owner of a
chain of movie theaters. His first "production" had an interesting
story behind it. In 1915, while he was living in San Francisco, he
learned that the authorities were about to clean out and close down the
city's notorious Barbary Coast district, a raucous area of gambling
houses, saloons and brothels. He grabbed a camera and a friend (future
Hollywood cameraman Hal Mohr) and roamed all over the district, shooting
footage of some of the area's best-known establishments before they
were shut down. After the film was put together he titled it Last Night of the Barbary Coast (1913),
sold it to theaters himself and made a bundle on it. Using that money,
he began buying up theaters and soon had his own chain. Going into film
production full-time in the 1930s with his own company, Principal
Pictures Corp., he concentrated mainly on low-budget westerns and
Tarzan pictures. He joined RKO in 1941 as executive in charge of
feature production.
